School with worst GCSE results lost £1million to textbook fraud

The money lost represented one tenth of the cost of a new building project (Picture: PA)

A school which had England’s worst GCSE results has been duped out of £1.1million after staff fell for a simple fraud.

St Aldhelm’s Academy, one of the country’s first free schools, received an out-of-the-blue email from conmen posing as its bank.

The message asked for codes to access the school’s account, which were sent on by its finance staff. Only later did they realise the money had gone, which amounted to ten per cent of its budget for a new building.

One resident near the academy, in Poole, Dorset, said: ‘Well this explains why the school has the worst GCSE results if the staff are this incompetent. I would take my children out ASAP.’

The scam is believed to have been part of wider organised crime linked to eastern Europe. Dorset Police are working with the Metropolitan Police and the National Crime Agency to investigate the fraud.

‘Sometimes people can blag with just a small amount of information, especially if they are dealing with inexperienced individuals,’ a spokesman for the NCA said.

Headteacher Cheryl Heron added: ‘We were subject to an external fraud last July.

‘It has not impacted on the day-to-day running of the academy or on our recent building work, which was completed on schedule.’

St Aldhelm’s, formerly Rossmore Community College, was given its academy status in 2010.